Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: fâilâtün fâilâtün fâilâtün fâilün (remel). The pattern was set by us, not by the edition.

Ey perî hüsn ile çün germ oldı bâzâruñ senüñ
Âfitâb ü mâh oldılar harîdâruñ senüñ
Bozdı yüzini mehüñ zülf ile lutf-ı ‘ârızuñ
Âfitâba âteş urdı tâb-ı ruhsâruñ senüñ
Cûybâr etrâfını seyr eyledikçe serv eger
Başı aşağa olurdı görse reftâruñ senüñ
Çeşm-i şehlâñı görelden bâğda ey serv-i nâz
Başı ditrer nergisüñ kim oldı bîmâruñ senüñ
Cânlar alur revân itseñ hırâmân kâmetüñ
‘Avnîye cân virür ammâ lutf-ı güftâruñ senüñ

In English

1. O fairy, since your market grew heated with your beauty, the sun and the moon became your buyers.

2. Your locks and the beauty of your cheek have soured the moon's face; the radiance of your cheek has set the sun on fire.

3. If the cypress, as it gazes along the stream, were to see your gait, it would hang its head (for shame).

4. O graceful cypress, since the narcissus in the garden saw your dark, languid eye, its head trembles, for it has become your invalid.

5. Should you set out with your swaying stature, you take lives; but the grace of your words gives life to Avnî.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

Almost every couplet of this five-couplet ghazal finds a fine reason for a natural phenomenon; it is one of the divan's richest poems in examples of hüsnütalil. The redif is "senüñ" (yours), and the rhyme the sound "-âruñ" in the words "bâzâruñ, harîdâruñ, ruhsâruñ, reftâruñ, bîmâruñ, güftâruñ". The word "reftâruñ" (your gait) in the third couplet is taken from Ali Emîrî's copy. The couplets run in the four-foot remel pattern.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The opening couplet is a market scene. The beloved's beauty has heated the market, and even the sun and moon have become buyers of the goods of union with her. In divan poetry, as Doğan recalls, the sun is likened to a gold coin and the moon to a silver one; the buyers themselves thus become money, and a congruence of suggested images (iham-ı tenasüp) is added to the hyperbole.

Jealousy explains the look of two heavenly bodies in the second couplet. The spots on the face of the full moon make it look like a person with knitted brows and a sour face; "yüz bozmak" means to sulk. The moon has come to this state because it envies the beloved's locks and cheek. The sun's being a burning ball of fire is likewise due to its burning with envy of the beloved's bright cheek. In the third couplet the upside-down reflection in the water of the cypresses at the stream's edge is interpreted as their bowing their heads in shame before the beloved's swaying gait. The fourth couplet ties the swaying of the eye-like narcissus in the wind to its falling sick with envy of the beloved's languid eyes, its head trembling. The word "bîmâr" suits the narcissus, meaning both sick and an eye with a languid look.

The final couplet compares death and revival. When the beloved's swaying stature sets out, it takes the lives of the lovers who see it; but a delicate and gracious word from her gives Avnî life again. Doğan notes that the beloved, from whose almost non-existent mouth life-giving words come, is likened in divan poetry to Jesus and called "Jesus-breathed"; in the couplet this comparison works without being stated.

Bibliography

  • Fâtih Sultan Mehmed (Avnî), Fâtih Dîvânı ve Şerhi / Dīwān of Sultan Mehmed II with Commentary, ed. Muhammet Nur Doğan, English trans. Michael D. Sheridan, 3rd ed., Istanbul: Türkiye Yazma Eserler Kurumu Başkanlığı, 2023, poem 42, pp. 332-334 (manuscript: Millet, Ali Emîrî Manzum 305, fol. 13b). https://ekitap.yek.gov.tr/urun/fatih-divani-ve-serhi--ucuncu-baski-_794.aspx

Online sources